The Therapeutic Management of Psychological Illness: The Theory and Practice of Supportive Care

The Therapeutic Management of Psychological Illness: The Theory and Practice of Supportive Care

Excerpt

In the past fifty years medicine has made major strides in developing definitive interventions in illness and injury. As we discover the cause and subsequent cure and prevention of illness, our attention is focused on the dramatic, acute interventions. Yet all of us recognize that most of our time, attention, and energy are devoted to patients with conditions that require support, rehabilitation, and palliation. Thus, though the drama and romance of medicine have been focused on the cure and prevention of illness, the everyday work of medicine remains in the area of management of illness. That management which relieves suffering, prevents complications, and allows the patient to function at or near his capacity is the technique which we choose to call supportive care.

In psychiatry there are a number of illnesses, notably schizophrenia, for which there is no approach or method of intervention so definitive that it can be thought of as producing a cure. There are, however, methods of management that foster remission, prevent complications, and support function in the schizophrenic patient. In this book we describe tech-